New members and potential members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome
at all of these events. The full diary of club featured
events is on the club website at:
http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml (updated early June).

Paul Sinton-Hewitt at Waterside on Tuesday 5th July from 12:30 - last call

I'm keen for members who are not British Airways staff to also come to this
event if they want to and are able to. I will however have to arrange
visitor passes for them so I need to know in advance. Please reply to me
now and also advise me if you'd like to stay afterwards to include a visit to
the BA heritage museum from 14:00 to 15:00. Those I've got listed as
needing visitor passes are: Alan Anderson, Alice Banks, Benita Scaife, Chris
Kelly, Fred Ashford and John Scaife.

WARR Update

The WARR Chicago 2016 Organizing Committee is extremely pleased and excited
to announce that we have secured the Aon Ballroom located at the end of
Chicago's #1 tourist attraction, Navy Pier, for this year's Running with the
Wind Gala Awards dinner! [Ed: where in Chicago is this?
Along with all the known 2016 WARR venues it's on the club map]

You will not want to miss this year's WARR if you want to experience Chicago
in so many unique ways - the race course right along the Lake Michigan shoreline
along Grant Park, the Awards dinner at Navy Pier, and we hope to announce more
unique venues for the Meet & Greet Party and the T-shirt Swap Parties very soon!
Click
here to register for the race and the awards dinner today!

And don't
forget to complete your Chicago Week experience with the O'Hare 5K on the Runway
on Sunday morning September 25 at 8:00 AM. Click
here for information and registration.

With the O'Hare Airport Run on the Sunday don't forget to add your team as
"British Airways" - at the
moment the BA team consists of me, Paul Watt and Julie Barclay and there is
plenty of space for more.

Some of the readership will have been celebrating midsummer, some will have
felt the boost of supporting a winning side in a European football tournament
[Ed: DON'T mention the Euros] and some maybe were just wishing they had bothered to vote in the referendum.
Anyway, whatever, parkrun jogs steadily on to provide us with a bit of
stability.

Our runner nearest to Europe this week was Gary Rushmer (20:22) at
Sittingbourne in Kent. He was our first member to try out the course there
in Milton Creek Country Park where parkruns only started at the end of February.
That time puts Gary 3rd out of the 29 runners in his age group who have tried it
so far. We have now been recorded in the results at 268 different parkruns
worldwide.

Barry Walters (21:11) was doing a parkrun for the first time since St
George's Day running at Upton Court. That time puts him 3rd out 54 runners
in his newish age category there.

Paul Watt (22:12) and Julie Barclay (22:19) set new club records at
Riddlesdown while Steve(23:01) and Linda (26:05) Dodsworth set pbs and club
records at Harrogate.

Ray Hampton (29:23) ran his first parkrun for 17 months at Woodbank
(Stockport). Marathon legend Ron Hill still runs there occasionally and
has recorded a best time of 31:52 so far this year.

Roderick Hoffman (27:10) is edging towards being labelled a "Londone"
parkrunner with a run at Greenwich. Neil Frediani still holds the club
record there with 27:01. That takes Roderick's score up to 158 different
parkrun venues worldwide which puts him in 23rd place in the global rankings.
Bromley and Bexley are the two outstanding within the London area.

Ed: Meanwhile Richard Ruffell set a new club record at
Hatfield Forest. It was reported that there was a stampede of cows
crossing the course before the finishing funnel which perhaps accounts for
Richard's faster time.

John Lennon (27:37) and Trish McCabe ran at Black Park for the first time,
Piers Keenleyside (25:26) ran at Gunnersbury for 100th time.

Anyone planning to run at Maidenhead next week should think again. The
parkrun has been cancelled! The same goes for Guildford where Stoke Park
has been taken over by a steam rally.

Achievements update

Hannah Walker's 15:55 at St Albans on 27th July 2013 has been reinstated as
the parkrun women's fastest running performance. This will be because Lizzie
Williams'
time at Dulwich last week has been flagged as a women's wheelchair time (and
record). For Hannah's performance I'm able to say "I was there" which is why I
keep an eye on that record. Why are records important? Surely parkrun is a
run not a race? A good question to ask Paul Sinton-Hewitt on 5th July.

Are you able to say "I was there" for a particular parkrun achievement or
event? Or for any other running related achievement or event?
Write in and say.

Longest Weekend

It is traditional for parkrun enthusiasts to run more than one parkrun on the
weekend immediately after or closest to midsummers day. I decided to
go with the date/time related theme and drove over to Greenwich to do my first
parkrun there - my 158th different venue. Greenwich parkrun is in Avery
Hill Park which is well to the east within the borough, so about five km from
the meridian that shares the Greenwich name. More appropriately the
parkrun is four minutes east of the Meridian. After a quick second
breakfast I then drove to Beckton parkrun which lies 3 minutes east (and a few
miles north, and across the river). Following my freedom run at Beckton I
then drove another few miles north to do another freedom run at Wanstead Flats,
just one minute west of the Meridian. And after that where else could I go
other than Gunpowder, another few miles north and this time on the meridian
itself (the start is in the Western hemisphere and the finish is in the East).
So one timed parkrun and three freedom runs as I made my way from Greenwich to
the Meridian.

Details of this event and how to register are at:
http://www.anna.aero/budrunwayrun/ . In the past we have been
tempted to enter a team into the event so if anyone is keen please offer
your name as an informal BA team captain and see if anyone else joins
you.

PS Last years results:

They had 439 finishers in the 10k and 284 in the 5k. Fastest 10k male
31:02, Female 40:40 and fastest 5k male 18:17 and female 17:54 (winner
overall)